Travel Travails
by drake220
Summary: Before anyone else joined the hunt, Inuyasha and Kagome had to get used to traveling together. This is what happened during that extremely rough period. Hehehe...Up now: Martha Comes to Visit
1. Thumper or why Disney killed Instincts

A/N: The idea popped into my head for this ficlet series. The manga and anime both ignore all the little details Inu and Kagome would have had to work out before traveling peacefully (or at least as peacefully as those two can).

All chapters take place before they met anyone: no Shippou, Miroku, Sesshomaru or Sango.

By the way, the title is a play on words as both 'travel' and 'travail' sound alike. I thought it was cute. (Travail, for anyone who doesn't know, has several meanings. One of these definitions is: tribulation, agony and other such things. As this is pretty much what Inu and Kagome are going through, I thought it apt.) Sorry. English Major wannbe humor.

Hope you enjoy!

Read and Review!

Oh, I don't any of these characters! Ms. Takahashi does.

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**Thumper or why Disney killed survival instincts:**

Kagome barely restrained herself from collapsing onto the ground. _We've been walking for hours, _she groaned to herself._ How much longer?_ She noticed with disgust that Inuyasha was doing perfectly well. _Then again he is a half-demon_, Kagome reminded herself. Her blisters burned as a reminder of how much her dainty feet disliked walking.

Sniffing miserably, Kagome was too busy wallowing in self pity to notice that the easily irritated Inuyasha had stopped. _I want to be a hanyou!_ Kagome wailed mentally.

"Bitch, why are you doing that?" Inuyasha shouted, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance. "We've only been walking for a few hours and you're whining and complaining!"

"I have not complained!" Kagome said angrily, stamping her foot. "I haven't said a word!"

"You're whining in your head and you're muttering to yourself!" Inuyasha shot back. Stomping off the road, he dumped her overly large bag into a clear area. Kicking away a few branches and leaves, he gestured at a boulder.

"Sit here and rest," he commanded with a weary sigh. Kagome squealed happily and dropped next the rock, resting her back and tired legs with a grateful sound.

"This much exercise cannot be healthy," she groaned.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes dramatically. "God, you are the weakest person I know," he said in disgust. "Just sit here and don't get into trouble while I'm getting supper."

With that he leapt away into the forest and Kagome gladly went to take care of her business in the bushes. That done, she fell into a light sleep, too exhausted to even care about the bugs, dirt or possible demons. It was too soon for the exhausted girl when her traveling companion returned.

"Bitch!" Inuyasha shoved dirt onto Kagome's leg. "Wake up!"

Kagome groggily scrubbed sleep from her eyes only to be confronted with the single most grisly thing she had ever beheld.

"_Oh my god!"_ she screamed, scuttling backward as quickly as she could. "_What is _that_?"_

Inuyasha looked at the dead rabbit in his hand. "It's supper," he said, wondering if all females were this stupid or if he was just unlucky.

"No, that can't be supper!" Kagome cried. "It's, that's…that's Thumper!"

Inuyasha blinked. "No, this is a rabbit."

"Thumper!" moaned Kagome, staring at the rabbit with its nearly decapitated head with its floppy ears, glassy eyes and bloody gray fur.

Inuyasha stared down at the frantic mortal. "You are messed up in the head," Inuyasha pronounced as he dropped dinner next to Kagome.

She shrieked and scrambled away.

Inuyasha glared and pointed at the bloody meat. "I caught it so you prepare and cook it."

Kagome's blue-grey eyes widened in horror. "_What?"_

"Prepare it and cook it," Inuyasha enunciated. "You know, skin, debone the damn thing, chop it up and throw it onto the fire and then we'll ea…Why did your skin turn green?"

Kagome, poor modern Kagome, rushed off to the side of their campsite to vomit, images of the famous cartoon rabbit in her head.

"Shit- are you throwing up?" Inuyasha shouted, backing away.

Gagging as the atrocious smell of her last meal mixed with acidic stomach bile filled his too sensitive nose, Inuyasha backed away. It was causing his gorge to rise and, leaping to the opposite side of the fire, Inuyasha choked and vomited helplessly.

"Stop that now!" demanded Inuyasha weakly between heaves.

"Thumper! Poor Thumper!" mumbled Kagome as she bent over again, mental pictures of Bambi's best friends mangled body turning her stomach.

"Damn it all, I said stop!" roared Inuyasha. "urk…!" The frenzied hanyou covered his mouth but it was no use. "DAMN BITCH!"

From that day on, Inuyasha never brought dinner back before it was simply meat, unrecognizable and anonymous. On her part, Kagome never forgot the Ramen again.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed! If you have suggestions or comments, let me know. Thanks for reading!


	2. The Commencement of a Custom

A/N:Such a quickupdate! You all have my oh-so-boring job to thank for this! Tons of mindless drudgery while I have internet access. Hmm…I wonder what I'll end up doing? That's right! Writing stories and playing online! I'm quite pleased with how the first chapter was received and, hopefully, everyone will like this as well! Thank you to anyone who reviewed! I loved every one!

Keep in mind that later I'm going to have some chapters that take place before this and some that take place after this. This collection of ficlets is not necessarily in a time-wise sequence of events. There is no particular order!

Enjoy!

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Chapter Two: The Commencement of a Custom:

Inuyasha stared down at the exhausted girl lying in a heap at his feet.

"Pleeeaaaasssseeee?" whined Kagome.

"Go to hell."

"Plllleeeeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeeeee!" begged the schoolgirl.

"I don't get it!" snapped Inuyasha. "Why the fuck are you tired already? We've only been walking for six hours!"

"I'm dying," Kagome stubbornly insisted. "My feet are going to fall off and I'll become a cripple!"

Inuyasha groaned, her melodramatic tendencies giving him a headache. "Come on, you stupid bitch. Just get up and move."

He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up. Kagome was as limp as a dead fish in his arms and Inuyasha let out an explosive sigh.

"Fine," he grumbled as he dropped her onto the floor. "We'll stop for a bit."

Kagome let out a blinding smile and thanked Inuyasha profusely. Rolling his eyes, the half demon leapt up into a tree, settling himself comfortably against the trunk.

"You know," he said a few minutes later as the thought occurred to him, "if you weren't so chubby and soft, you'd be able to walk more."

"Excuse me?" Kagome asked uncomprehendingly after a moment of shocked silence had passed.

"I said you're chubby. Fat even. I mean, I can hear your thighs rub together when you walk," Inuyasha unwisely continued.

_He _did not_ just say that!_ she thought incredulously as a feeling of pure rage grew her chest.

"Why? What do they call fat girls in your era?" Inuyasha asked innocently. "Plump? Pigs? Horses? Cows?"

"How dare you?" Kagome hissed, her glare impressively frightening.

Inuyasha looked down at her odd tone of voice and blanched at her furious expression. "What the fuck is that expression for? You have to go to shit?"

"No you, you….jerk!" Kagome shouted, unable to bring herself to curse.

"Oh no please don't hurt my feelings with such mean words," Inuyasha snickered.

"SIT!" Kagome shrieked on the top of her lungs.

With a hard thump, Inuyasha landed on his head, his poor dog ears crushed and his ego flattened.

"Bitch!" he spat out as he struggled to raise his head. "You better not do that again!"

"Oh really?" Kagome shouted. "Why shouldn't I, huh?"  
"Because…I can see up your skirt like this!" he lied quickly.

Kagome's hands fisted and she struggled to think of something biting to retort but a piercing whistle interrupted her thoughts. Turning slowly, Kagome stared at her portable water heater and then slowly looked at her backpack. A sly smile broke across her face and Inuyasha, remarkably quick on that sunny afternoon, went pale.

"Kagome…," he threatened, "don't you dare!"

Humming happily, Kagome ambled over and calmly mixed up a bowl of Ramen, ignoring Inuyasha's strangled pleas for mercy.

"Sit," she called out as he surged to his feetonce the incantation released him.

_Whump!_

Once more chained by the spells power, he was helpless at Kagome's mercy. Smiling widely, Kagome poured the Ramen onto the ground right before Inuyasha's horrified eyes.

"No!" he wailed unhappily.

"Whoops," Kagome said cheerfully. "And that was the last one too…"

"Damn you, you aren't as nice as you pretend to be!" Inuyasha shouted as he jumped up. "And your thighs are even bigger then I thought!"

Kagome smiled a hard smile. "Sit." Inuyasha crashed to the ground with a curse and the vengeful schoolgirl picked up the portable teapot.

"What are you doing?" Inuyasha asked nervously.

Kagome opened the top of the kettle and poured the boiling hot water all over Inuyasha's defenseless back.

"ARGGHHHH!" he screamed in shock.

"Oh calm down," Kagome snapped. "That fire rat fur you wear didn't let a little hot water hurt you, did it?"  
"That is not the point!" Inuyasha hollered as the spell released him. Jumping straight up into the safety of the trees, he hugged a branch and cursed Kagome loudly. "Crazy bitch!"

The girl glared and whirled around. "I'm going to go look for shards of the Jewel. You can stay up there and hide. Apparently, you're not half dog but really half chicken!"

Inuyasha growled and dropped to the forest floor. Unsheathing his Tessuiga, he roared a challenge.

"Sit," Kagome called out lazily.

Inuyasha toppled, just barely avoiding stabbing himself on a dull blade.

"It won't work against me remember?" Kagome reminded him as she took the sword from him and sheathed it clumsily in its scabbard.

"After pouring the Ramen everywhere, my sword would work against you 'cuz you are plainly not human!" Inuyasha yelled. "No human would be that cruel! Or fat!" he added empathetically.

Kagome, enraged, hurled the metal teapot at Inuyasha's head. It landed square between his eyes with a slight _ping_.

Inuyasha blinked and tried to stop his head from ringing. He coughed once or twice and shook his head vigorously. "It didn't hurt," he called out weakly.

Kagome snorted once eloquently.

"And you're still weak and soft _and _chubby," the hanyou finished with a mean grin.

"_Argh_!" Kagome wordlessly screamed, stomping her foot. Her blue eyes flashed with anger and her entire body strained with the urge to slap the arrogant boy.

Inuyasha looked up at the livid girl and noticed for the first time that she was quite pretty like this. In fact, she was very nice to look at in general, he realized in shock.

Kagome stormed off, muttering about how stupid teenaged boys were, shouting the restraining word a few times for extra measure.

Inuyasha eventually got up, brushed himself off and wandered after her, plotting what else he could say to once again make her so prettily infuriated.

"I'm going back to Kaede's and then I'm going home, you jerk!" Kagome yelled from up the path.

Inuyasha smiled gleefully. _Now this'll be useful…_ "No way bitch!" he shouted, jogging to catch up.

Thus, a tradition was born.

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A/N: There you have it- my explanation for the vigorous arguments they always have over Kagome going home. Hope you all like it. I'll be updating 'Thank You' next (BIG lemon scene!) and then 'Wardrobe Malfunction'. This noticeis just in case anyone cares.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Meaning of Math and deeper concepts:

A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for reviewing the last chapter! Now, before I get any complaints, I know that we never see any evidence of this in the manga or anime. Suffice to say that I think it's a plausible scenario and, more importantly, think it's cute. I mean, they have to bond over more then blood and gore, right? Good! I'm glad we're all in agreement. Enjoy!

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**Meaning of Math and deeper concepts:**

Kagome peered intently at her math book. Consulting her notes and the pages, she valiantly attempted to do her homework.

Inuyasha fidgeted, bored out of his mind. "What is that?"

Blue eyes flickered up and back down in a quick movement. "A book."

"It's weird," Inuyasha pronounced.

Kagome sighed. "It's like a scroll but bound together at the sides of the pages. You turn the papers and go to next thing to read."

Nothing more was said as the schoolgirl dove back into her work. The restless hanyou jiggled his foot with barely contained energy.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha whined piteously. "Make me something to eat…."

The teenaged girl looked up and glared. "I am trying to study. Back off."

Crouching on the balls of his feet, Inuyasha sighed loudly. "But I'm hungry," he pouted.

"Aren't you the dangerous hanyou?" Kagome asked, sounding completely uninterested. "Go hunt or something."

"But it's not as good as Ramen!" Inuyasha said stubbornly. "And it takes a lot longer!"

"I'm studying and don't have time," she insisted, moving back a few pages in her textbook. "I have to go home soon to take this exam."

"…Exam?" Inuyasha asked blankly.

"It's a test of my abilities," Kagome explained, already knowing what the half demon would understand.

Inuyasha snorted a laugh. "What abilities? Whining? Complaining?"

Kagome didn't look up from her homework page. "Math."

The amusement Inuyasha derived from this was obvious. "I have never heard of this 'math' thing…do you have to kill it?"

Sighing wistfully, Kagome replied, "No I wish. No killing in math."

"Well then what's the point?" Inuyasha asked practically.

"It's knowledge," Kagome answered.

"Keh," Inuyasha said dismissively. "Then there is no point."

"There is more to life then killing!"

That earned her an mocking snort. "Keh."

"Knowledge is important!" Kagome said, finally looking up. "And it's harder then just swinging a sword around."

Inuyasha plucked the math book from his companion's lap. "Let's see this math stuff."

There was silence by the campfire as Inuyasha stared at the triangles, angles, fractions and percentages. The numbers, tangents, cosigns, derivatives, velocity and slopes all swam before his golden eyes.  
"What, what is all this?" he asked in stupefaction.

"Algebra," Kagome said succinctly, enjoying his pain. "Math."

The half demon gave the modern girl a hard and piercing look. "So you get what this is saying?" he inquired, jabbing his clawed finger at the page.

"Mostly," Kagome said with a deprecating shrug. "Once you get taught, it's not the biggest deal."

Inuyasha stared down at the book, all the mysterious symbols and complicated formulas mocking him. "Keh," he said dismissively as he thought of his own uneducated past.

An uncomfortable silence descended upon the pair. Kagome recognized the tense air coming from Inuyasha but couldn't figure out what could have made the self-assured hanyou so edgy.

"Are you okay?" she asked as the silence stretched on.

"Keh," Inuyasha huffed. "Fancy, weird scrolls….stupid and useless…"

Leaning back, Kagome stared at the white haired boy, his nonchalance transparently a facade. Opening her mouth, she was cut off by her new companion.

"I don't need book learning!" Inuyasha snapped.

Kagome jumped a little. "I never said you did," she said slowly.

"I kill things. I don't need to read. Or do this math stuff. I'm a hunter and a half demon. Half breeds don't care about books or knowledge," Inuyasha went on.

"Oh well-"

"This math stuff is stupid," Inuyasha spat out. "All of it is shit assed and for monks, noblemen and people with nothing to do."

Blinking, Kagome tried to process what Inuyasha was so furious over. "You already do math," she informed the incredulous hanyou.

"I do not!" he protested vehemently.

Sighing, the schoolgirl plucked two twigs from the ground. "How many do I have?" she asked, holding one stick.

"One," Inuyasha answered in disgust. "I'm not an imbecile, you know."

Adding the other twig to her hand, Kagome repeated her question.

"What the hell? Two!" growled Inuyasha.

"If I had, let's say, two more?"

"Four," he replied, a vein twitching with pent up aggression.

"If I took away two?"

"Two," the hanyou said with clenched fists.

Putting one stick back onto the ground, Kagome asked for the last time, "How many do I have?"

"_ONE!"_ finally shouted the impatient boy. "Fuckin' hell, you bitch! ONE! What the fuck is with all the god damn questions? Are you stupid? Anyone can answer those damn questions!"

Kagome allowed herself a gloat. "Exactly. Those questions you just answered are the key to all math. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Once you have those down, the rest is all just extra learning." Tossing the two sticks into the fire, Kagome said softly, "But I suppose that learning is up to a person. If someone doesn't want to learn, they don't have to."

Inuyasha's fists slowly unclenched and the red in his face diminished as comprehension dawned. For a long moment, he stared at Kagome's serene face as old insults and slurs about his capacities rumbled through his conflicted mind..

Without a word, he leapt into a tree's branches and stayed there the entire night.

The next day, when Kagome returned from her dip in the local river, she noticed that her books had claw marks in them. She did not mention the obvious implications to her agitated companion and Inuyasha remained mute on the subject.

Instead, she merely began to explain aloud her textbook.

High above her, Inuyasha listened and digested her words.

Between them, a tenuous bond of more then shard hunting developed slowly through a mutual desire to learn.

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A/N: See what I meant? Not anywhere there but I think Inuyasha would enjoy knowledge. He just wouldn't admit it. Hope you liked it! Review and let me know what you think! (BTB, 'Wardrobe Malfunction' will be updated within the next two weeks!)


	4. Bribery

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. The situation I put them in is. However, if Takahashi wants to do this, go right ahead. All I ask for is a percentage of the royalties.

A/N: I just find the images in this chapter hysterically funny. I think you'll see why. Plus, it's a realistic view of why Inuyasha lets Mrs. Higurashi fondle his ears. MILF's have all the luck.

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**Bribery:**

"Do I even want to know how you convinced him to stay here?" Kagome asked her mother rhetorically.

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head gently as she walked up the shrine steps alongside her daughter. "You just need to understand him, dear. He's a nice half dog boy."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad you approve of my fellow time traveler."

"He is so helpful too," Mrs. Higurashi continued, blithely ignoring Kagome's sarcasm.

"I don't think Inuyasha understands helpful," the younger woman said dryly. "I ask him to help all the time and he just sniffs like I suggested he wash his clothes or eat uncooked Ramen."

"Oh my, a sniff that bad?" her mother smiled as they cleared the top of the steps. "It's a goods thing he and I get along so well. I don't have to worry about dangerous things like those sniffs."

Groaning to herself in mild annoyance, Kagome shifted the backpack on the her shoulders. It has been pleasant to meet her mother as she was walking to the shrine after school.

It meant she was still alive after babysitting a fidgety Inuyasha for the day.

To her surprise, Mrs. Higurashi had immediately gone into a lengthy and positive report of Inuyasha's behavior in the Shrine as he waited for Kagome to come home.

"So he was okay?" Kagome asked finally. "I felt bad leaving him here but I can't exactly take him to school with me."

Mrs. Higurashi slid open the door to the house and smiled again. "He was wonderful. I just had to find out what he liked and then gave it to him in exchange for good behavior."

Kagome stopped in the foyer and stared at her mother, one shoe off and one on. "You _bribed _him?" she asked incredulously.

"More like an exchange of favors," Mrs. Higurashi defended herself.

"How much Ramen did that cost you?" Kagome chuckled, wondering at her sweet mother's sly ingenuity.

"None."

"None?" Kagome's mouth gaped open. "How is that possible?"

"Um…" her mother hedged.

"OI! YOU!" came the familiarly imperious yell from the kitchen. "COME HERE!"

Scowling, Kagome stormed forward, sliding open the door while snapping, "Say my name or just don't talk, dog boy!"

Souta laughed as he looked up. "You have no idea how right you are! Dog boy!" The younger boy cracked up again.

"Wench, I don't care what your name is," Inuyasha scowled. "How long can this 'school' thing take you? I almost died here of old age!"

Kagome stared down at Inuyasha, only hearing the two males faintly. Looking at what was in the half youkai's clawed hands for well over a minute, she blinked but couldn't get a word out.

"Inuyasha?" she asked finally. "What are you eating?"

Snarling, Inuyasha sprang to his feet. "They're mine!" he snapped, holding the box to his chest.

"I…I get that," Kagome answered haltingly. "But why are you eating doggie treats?"

Inuyasha stuffed another bone shaped snack into his mouth and chewed furiously. Knowing full well how disgusting Kagome would find the sight, he stuck his tongue out with partially grinded food on it.

"Inuyasha!" the schoolgirl grimaced in revulsion.

"I'll slice you if you try to take them away!" Inuyasha threatened. "I cleaned the whole god damned yard for these!"

Mrs. Higurashi beamed as she entered the kitchen next to the still gagging Kagome. "He did a wonderful job of it too!"

"See?" Inuyasha obnoxiously said. "I earned them! When was the last time you earned any food, huh?"

"Mama? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Kagome said quietly as she dragged her mother out before the older woman could reply.

"It's not nice to drag your old lady around!" Inuyasha shouted as the shoji door closed.

Kagome stuck her head back in and snapped, "Learn to chew with your mouth closed and then you can lecture me on manners!"

Turning to her unrepentantly grinning mother, Kagome raised her eyebrows. "Doggie treats?"

"It seemed a logical conclusion to me," her mother said innocently.

"It's rude!" Kagome protested.

"Why?"

"Because he's not really a dog, mother!" she said loudly. "He's a dog youkai!"

"Semantics," Mrs. Higurashi said dismissively. "Besides, one bag are a lot more easy to carry around then cups of Ramen," she added.

"I have to explain this to him…," Kagome said, not at all wanting to even think about Inuyasha's reaction.

"I don't see why."

Ignoring her mother, Kagome walked into the kitchen and bravely explained the insult to Inuyasha.

His golden eyes widened and he spit out what was left of his snack. "What the hell?" he shouted, face red. Racing outside, he leapt into a tree and refused to come down.

Kagome, feeling too guilty, left him alone, not using the coercive power of the sit command.

The next day, Inuyasha jumped down as soon as Kagome left. Pushing open the screen door, he gladly picked up the leftover doggie treats. Mrs. Higurashi dried her hands on a dish towel and smiled.

"So it'll be our secret?" she asked. "Chores for doggie snacks?"

Inuyasha nodded silently and popped three of the delicious bones into his mouth. "Don't tell the wench."

"Agreed."

And so it was. Inuyasha helped around the Shrine and Mrs. Higurashi kept a ready supply of his favorite flavor and brand in the back of the pantry closet. Kagome couldn't understand just why Inuyasha tolerated things from her mother that he never allowed from anyone else but accepted it as a boon from the gods.

She was never told that Inuyasha became friends with her mother before her.

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A/N: I hope you liked it! I just can definitely see Inuyasha being so 'mature' and sticking out half-masticated food just to gross out finicky Kagome! Hehe! Review and let me know what you thought!


	5. Role Play and Reprimands…

**A/N: **This is dedicated to my two of my siblings who are eleven and twelve and will argue over the last tomato in the fridge. Enjoy everyone! Read and Review!

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**Role Play and Reprimands…**

The murmurs were definitely getting to Kagome, Inuyasha noticed with a snide grin. She was shifting and her smiles were sporadic and nervous.

"Demon," a woman whispered to her companion fearfully. "What is it doing here?"

Inuyasha arrogantly raised his head. _They should be afraid_, he thought smugly. _If it wasn't for the human wench here, I'd be wreaking havoc all over this two bit town!_

"Stay away! A human looking demon like that is the most dangerous kind!" a mother admonished her children as she herded them to safety.

"See that?" Inuyasha said arrogantly. "Everyone is scared of me! You should learn from them."

Kagome didn't bother turning around but her dismissive sniff was audible even to a non-hanyou. "I hate to tell you this but this is Feudal Japan and I'm not from here. Just because these poor women are so easily frightened doesn't mean that I am. Where's a sleeping hostel? I need a bath."

Inuyasha growled, affronted. "To hell with your bath. These women have more common sense then you. I am very dangerous," he stressed seriously.

Kagome merely sniffed again and kept walking. "Whatever."

A man yanked his wife into a hut, loudly whispering to get out of the demon's way. "It might lose its temper and then who knows what it'll do?" he asked frightfully.

"See?" Inuyasha pointed the pair out to Kagome with a clawed finger. "He's scared of me too!"

"Then he's also an idiot."

"Honestly, that demon is so shameless," one villager mumbled to another from behind an open doorway. "Such a short kimono!"

Kagome and Inuyasha stopped dead. Looking at each other, a terrible understanding grew.

Inuyasha turned around and glared at the entire village. Reaching out, he grabbed a nearby man. "Who are you talking about? Who are you frightened of?" he demanded, ignoring the man's struggles.

"Her!" the desperate villager cried out. "Her!"

"What?" both teenagers yelled.

"I'm the half-demon!" Inuyasha shouted angrily.

"I'm a normal human!" Kagome yelled.

"Brazen hussy…." muttered a scandalized farmer as he scurried away.

"I am not!" Kagome protested. "All I want is a place to sleep!"

Inuyasha glared at Kagome in fury. "See? This is why you should wear normal clothing!"

Kagome turned up her nose with a sniff. "It's not my problem that sweet little me is scarier then growling, angry and maladjusted you!"

Inuyasha threw the petrified man away. "I'm a lot scarier then you, little girl!" Proving his point, the half demon flashed his sharp claws at the terrified man at his feet. The man appropriately groveled in fear.

"Would you stop doing that?" Kagome demanded in exasperation. Walking over to the man, she held out her hand with a smile. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha hasn't been fully house-trained."

Inuyasha glared silently, knowing he had been insulted but not understanding how.

"Do not kill me, o fearsome youkai mistress!" wailed the farmer, prostrating himself on the ground before a horrified Kagome's feet. "Do not set your minion on me!"

"Fearsome…youkai…mistress?" Kagome repeated slowly.

"Minion!" shouted Inuyasha, enraged at the idea that little Kagome had enslaved him. "I serve no one, you piece of shit!" He raised a fist above his head, intent on smashing the farmer's skull open.

"Sit!" snapped the small schoolgirl. With an audible crushing sound, Inuyasha was flung to the ground, much to the shock of the villagers. Kagome debated mentally explaining the spell, the virtues of honesty fighting with her need for a comfortable nights rest._ Comfortable futon and a hot bath or the truth…? Oh, who am I trying to fool?_ "As you can see," Kagome proclaimed loudly, "I have the…fearsome demon under control! Now show me the way to your hostel and hot springs!"

With a jarring suddenness, the village inhabitants seemed to disappear, closing the doors to their huts or running away screaming.

"What is going on?" Kagome mumbled in annoyance. "I just want a place to sleep!" she called after the fleeing villagers.

"Forget it wench," sighed Inuyasha as he picked himself up. "If there's one thing more terrifying to these jackasses then demons, it's those humans who control demons."

"So they're scared of me?" Kagome asked aghast, her gentle nature rebelling against having frightened innocent people.

"Yep," he said, striding off.

"But what about a place to sleep?" Kagome called out desperately.

"Ever hear of the woods bitch?"

"Not again!" she complained bitterly as she followed him back into the woods. "I hate this!"  
"Shouldn't have shattered the fuckin' jewel then, huh?" Inuyasha snidely retorted. "And if we're talking about 'hating', I hate the fact that people think I'm your trained pet demon."

Kagome smiled with a chuckle. "That was sort of funny."

"No," Inuyasha growled, "It was fucking _not_ sort of funny."

"I kind of enjoyed it."

"I kind of don't care."

"Why don't you kind of not be such a jerk?" Kagome replied angrily.

"Why don't you kind of not be so fuckin' sensitive?" Inuyasha snapped.

"Stop cursing so much!"

"Stop being such a baby!"

"You're making me lose my temper!" Kagome shouted, glaring at her traveling companion.

"You've been keeping your temper?" Inuyasha asked skeptically. "What the hell was with all those 'sit' commands then, wench?"

"Oh, you mean these?" Kagome retorted. "SIT."

_Thump!_

"You….fucking….bitch!" Iuyasha growled from his place about half a foot into the ground.

"I hate having to travel with you!" Kagome said, stomping her foot. "You're mean and spiteful and…horrible and…such a …such a….jerk!"  
Inuyasha thumped his face voluntarily back into the dirt. "Could you please stop making such lame insults? It's really pathetic."

Her hands in fists, Kagome stepped on his back hard as she walked away. "Catch up when you can!" she shouted.

"I don't have to catch up to you!"  
"I'm ahead!" Kagome snarled as she swung around. "That means you have to catch up to me!"  
Inuyasha surged to his feet. "Says who?"

"I say so!"

"Doesn't count!"

"I say it does!"

"I say that what you say counts doesn't count!" Inuyasha shouted.

Kagome was opened her mouth, closed it slowly and sighed. "Well, I…hold on, what?"

Inuyasha scratched his head. "I…have no idea."

"Huh."

"Huh."

Kagome threw her hands into the air. "Let's just go find a place to sleep."

"Keh."

"Oh!" she said in excitement. "Find someplace with a hot spring! I really want to take a bath!"

"You don't say," Inuyasha drawled sarcastically. "Really?"

"Oh shut up."

"Don't you mean 'oh shut up jerk'?" he said with a mean smile.

"No, I meant 'oh shut up and SIT!"

_Thump!_

"…I hate you."

"Whatever, puppy boy."

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A/N: Hehehe…Well, this series can't be all sweetness and roses! Haha! I just really had fun writing this. Hope you has fun reading it! Review kindly!


	6. Bad Day

A/N: Short and sweet! Enjoy and good luck to anyone who has finals! Happy Hell(finals) Week!

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**Bad Day:**

Inuyasha watched as Kagome stomped around their little campsite, frowning furiously. Thinking back, he tried to imagine what had thrown her into such an annoying snit. _We got attacked by bandits who kidnapped Kagome and I killed them…we got attacked by a youkai and it almost ate Kagome but I killed that too…We got thrown out of a village and I tried to kill them but Kagome wouldn't let me…Now we're in the forest and there are no hot springs around here so she took a cold bath in the river…. _Inuyasha nodded as he came to a realization. "You had a bad day," he announced.

"Brilliant deduction," snarled Kagome, toweling her hair furiously. "What gave it away?"

"You aren't smiling," Inuyasha answered with that uncanny knack for excruciating honesty. "You always smile. You don't look like you when you aren't smiling."

Kagome blinked at him, her mouth agape. She hadn't expected him to realize and certainly never thought he would care enough to comment. "Well, it was a hard day but I suppose I'm really okay in the end."

He reached out and plucked the towel from her unmoving hands. "Get back to smiling then. Frowning doesn't look normal on you."

"What does that mean?"

"It's weird to not see you smile. I got used to it." With that unsettling pronouncement, Inuyasha draped the towel to dry near the fire and set off to find dinner.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called out as he stepped from the clearing.

"What?"

"Did you miss me smiling?" she asked hesitantly, not even sure where the question was coming from.

He gave her a quizzical look and shook his head as if to clear it from distracting buzzing. "I don't know, I didn't think about it. I just know you and I know you are a smiling person. I frown and you smile. That's the way we work…" Nodding once, he strode off, the more emotional tone to the conversation no doubt lending wings to his feet.

Kagome stared at the place he had vacated.

"_I frown and you smile. That's the way we work…"_

"Opposites," she acknowledged to herself as she tidied up their campsite. "Opposites but we... we work."

When Inuyasha came back with supper, Kagome was smiling once again.

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A/N: Say it with me: "awwww...!" Who doesn't love a good fluff? Review and make my finals week not so bad!


	7. A Corpse Never Truly Dies Alone

A/N: Hey everyone! I've got a rather somber chapter here for you all. This is the first installment in a bunch of chapters with this theme of Corpses. I just find it really silly of anyone to assume that Kagome can blithely get used to the multitude of dead bodies she meets. She's a modern girl! She's not used to seeing dead bodies all the time! (She's not from New York…hehehe. Sorry about that ol' NYC pride coming to the surface.)

Enjoy and Review please!

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**A Corpse Never Truly Dies Alone: First Encounter: **

Inuyasha helplessly stared as Kagome cried.

He had been on his own since he was five, killed his first person by age seven and was generally capable of handling himself in almost any given situation. Yet this, seeing Kagome undone by the dead body of a boy, he had no idea where to begin. His rough life-given education had not provided any lessons in comforting others and especially not pretty and cheerful girls who were fast becoming a friend.

"Uh…," he tried but knew there was nothing to say.

"He looks like Souta!" Kagome sobbed quietly into her hands. "He's too young to be dead…"

Inuyasha sourly thought that there was no such thing as too young to die. _To think otherwise is deluding yourself but if she collapses this way every time she sees a dead body, her naiveté is gonna get us both killed. _

"There's too much death in this time, no peace or happiness!" She looked so dejected and heartbroken Inuyasha felt a shocking surge of sympathy for the loss of her complacent innocence.

"There is peace and happiness," he responded, not able to bring himself to lay a hand on her shoulder. "It's just not very… common."

"It should be!" Kagome said vehemently as she jerked her face to Inuyasha. "That boy shouldn't have died before he was twelve! Someone should stop all this!" Her odd blue eyes burned in fervor and glowed with the luster of tears. Red rimmed and leaking, they held a fire that captivated Inuyasha with a power neither of them realized.

_I've never seen anyone cry so hard for someone she doesn't know_, Inuyasha thought, disconcerted. "Eventually all wars end," he answered slowly, feeling his way through the words as he spoke them. "Eventually this peace you want will come to these people. You just have to wait for the bloodthirsty and power hungry to stop or die. Someone's victory stops the killing and murders."

Kagome had sunk onto her knees and she now slowly rested her head on them. "Nothing else? No other way? Just…wait?"

Inuyasha knelt down so he was eye level with the despondent and disillusioned Kagome. "You and I are doing all we can. We can't bring back the dead. We can't take destroy all the existing armies and we certainly can't fight all the ones that would rise from the destroyed armies. You and I are powerless to stop death."

Kagome felt her eyes tearing again and buried her head between her knees. "I don't want to hear this."

Inuyasha glared in annoyance. "I don't know how else to tell you the truth. Almost no one in this era lives very long and sure as hell no one is going to go through their lives without a few wars, plagues or destructive youkai! That's the way it is," he said firmly and coldly.

"All those dead people, killed by a war they didn't even understand. How terrible," Kagome said quietly, pointing at the carnage surrounding them. Inuyasha looked around, not quite able to tell Kagome that the three men, two women and six children that had been slaughtered were all killed in an ambush by common road thieves.

"There's nothing we can do," Inuyasha reiterated. Standing, he brushed off his hakama pants and then offered Kagome his clawed hand. "But we can give them a burial. A proper burial, with flowers and anything else you want to do."

Kagome looked up at him, her face blank and exhausted. "We couldn't help them while they lived, why not help with their deaths?" she asked rhetorically. She smiled a soft smile that was still full of hope and life and sighed. "Why not?"

Hefting her off the ground with one graceful motion, Inuyasha pointed out a shovel that had been abandoned at the side of the road, probably by one of the victims. She wandered over and began digging next to him as he opened a grave with his claws.

As each body dropped into its grave, the sunlight grew dimmed and faded until there was none was left.

"It's dark," Kagome commented mindlessly as the young boy was dropped into his final resting place.

Inuyasha shoved the last of the dirt over the corpse and settled next to the shivering Kagome. Still not touching her, he sat close enough so she could feel his warmth.

"Want me to make a fire?" he asked softly.

Kagome shook her head. "I feel guilty for being alive now and by a fire when they're…"

"Dead," the hanyou said factually. "No use torturing yourself because they died. Just count your blessings and go on."

"Do you have a lot of experience with burying people?" Kagome asked after a moment.

Inuyasha lowered his head. "No, I've only buried someone once before."

"You sounded like you were used to it."

"I'm used to death," he replied honestly. "Not so much the burying."

"Why do it now?"

"You were crying so hard and you don't know him at all. I've never seen anyone cry over a stranger's death," Inuyasha answered, not looking at her.

"I'd cry more for someone I knew," Kagome said quietly, the events of the day lying heavily in her mind. "So be careful when how you fight."

"I fight just fine!" snapped Inuyasha, his eyebrows lowered in a glower.

"I know. I'm just asking that you be cautious. I don't care how common it is in this era, I think you're too young to die."

Inuyasha leaned back. "…You don't want me to die?"

Kagome stared at him incredulously. "Of course not! Baka!"

Not saying anything, the hanyou settled into a crouch, turning his face away from her. He wasn't foolish enough to believe her but wished it could be true. It had been too long since anyone had cared about whether he had died or lived. To have someone acknowledge his existence so bluntly was enough to rock his world on its axis.

Kagome nodded her head and invaded Inuyasha's line of sight. "Thank you for burying them. I know it couldn't have been easy with your nose and all."

"Keh," came the typical snort but it was said with no intensity.

Getting up, Kagome stretched. "Let's move away from here. I just can't sleep here."

Inuyasha sprang to his feet easily. "I'll make a fire once we set up for the night."

"Sounds good."

The two walked away, soon forgetting this first encounter with death. The hundreds of dead bodies Inuyasha and Kagome would eventually see paled the impact of that first corpse. Neither realized the gift that corpse had given. Neither understood that the discovery of the anonymous corpse was the rebirth of one scarred child's faith.

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A/N: Well, I hoped you liked it. I was unsure of the ending but I liked it. (You'll notice I adore pretentious endings. It's a vice.) Review please and let me know what you thought!


	8. Lessons the Corpse Taught: Luck

A/N: Like I said last chapter, this is a continuation of the Corpse theme. Again, there's a more serious tone to this chapter and I hope the emotions I wanted kag and Inuyasha to feel come through. Let me know what you thought!

Enjoy and review please!

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**The Lessons the Corpse Taught:**

Luck of the Draw:

The strange electric blue light faded as their feet touched the dirt floor of the well. Inuyasha leapt to the lip of the well and balanced there as Kagome wordlessly clambered up the ladder.

_She hasn't said a word for hours_, Inuyasha thought uneasily. Seeing the normally too talkative girl so quiet was raising the warning hairs on the back of his neck and the half-demon shifted in response.

Her terrified face as she woke up screaming from a nightmare replayed in Inuyasha's mind and he inwardly winced. The sweet scent he associated with her had completely altered with her fear and guilt staining her smell_. This whole situation is pissin' me off. It was just one stupid dead body,_ Inuyasha growled to himself as Kagome catatonically opened the door to the wellhouse.

For a moment he debated whether or not to insult her as that was almost a guarantee of a response. Looking at her slumped shoulders and the paleness of her skin he dismissed the idea without thinking about why.

"Hey! It's Kagome!" Souta ran forward with a grin, his ever-present soccer ball under his arm. Waving enthusiastically, he dashed toward the time travelers, never noticing the way his sister swayed on her feet or her soft, despairing moan.

"Oh Souta…," Kagome whispered as she finally saw her little brother alive, bursting into sudden, inconsolable tears.

"Kagome-nee-chan…? What's wrong with her?" the younger boy demanded, shaken by his cheerful older sister's sobs.

Inuyasha shook his head wordlessly and drew Souta away. "Go get your mom," he commanded as Kagome slumped to the floor, weeping hysterically. The youngest Higurashi nodded jerkily and rushed off, shouting for his mother.

Inuyasha knelt by Kagome's side, protective and watchful yet refusing to touch her. Her shoulders heaved as she wept and though his hands wanted to do something to stop her tears, Inuyasha offered her no comfort.

He simply didn't know how to soothe a person in pain.

The scent of Kagome's mother flowed toward Inuyasha's nose, her normal smell burnt acrid by her fear and anxiety. As Mrs. Higurashi collapsed next to her daughter and Souta hovered nearby, Jii-chan exploded out of the shrine and his hakama was stuffed with sutras to aid his beloved granddaughter. All three crowded around Kagome, patting her back and murmuring soft, loving words. The emotionally drained schoolgirl leaned gratefully into her mother's arms, consoled by the feel of home.

Inuyasha stared at the small, panicked scene that was developing in the shrine courtyard and slowly stepped away from Kagome. _I have no place here right now_, he realized. Turning away he soared onto the shrine rooftop with one agile leap. It did not escape his notice that no one realized that he had left.

00000000000000000000000000000000000

Kagome kneaded at her eyes as she woke up in her comforting, familiar bed. Shaking her head, she ruffled at her hair sleepily and looked out the window.

_What the-? It's dark!_ Kagome stared at nighttime sky in confusion. _It was barely past lunchtime when I came home. _Swinging her legs out of bed, she hit her guardian on his head.

"Damn it wench! Watch where you're throwing those things!" Inuyasha spat out from his spot on the floor by her bedside.

"Sorry!" Kagome gasped. "You were so quiet I didn't realize you were there!"

Inuyasha mutely glared and folded his legs, keeping his nose up in the air.

She shrugged and let out an apologetic smile. "How long did I sleep?"

"A while," he answered vaguely. "It's past dinner."

"I must have been tired," Kagome said with a smile. "I can't believe I fell apart like that."

Strangely, Inuyasha didn't say anything but just stared at her for a moment and then turned away.

Getting familiar with her new friend's mood swings, Kagome said nothing and waited for the beginning throes of his temper to cool.

"You okay?" she asked finally when the furrow lessened between his eyebrows.

"I can't believe you fell apart like that either," Inuyasha replied nastily.

Kagome glared. "You're a jerk."

"You're lucky," Inuyasha spat out heedlessly.

Both of their eyes widened at his slip of the tongue and the reticent boy leapt to his feet to escape.

"Wait!" Kagome said urgently. "What do you mean?"

He looked at her distrustfully but slowly settled back onto the carpet. "When you came back here," Inuyasha said uncomfortably as he concentrated on a faded bit of wallpaper, "your whole family rushed to come see you."

"What of it?"

"You're lucky."

She shook her head. "I don't understand…"

Inuyasha turned suddenly and faced her, the girl who had everything he never had. "You saw that dead boy, right? It reminded you of your brother and you were upset."

"Yeah-"

"Not yeah! You were more then upset," he interrupted roughly. "You were torn up by the fact that someone who only looked liked your little brother was dead."

"It was horrible to see. I thought I was okay with it when I went to sleep but I saw his body in my dreams and it was awful…," she trialed off and shivered. "I had never seen a dead body before and to see one that looked so eerily like Souta was really scary," she explained softly.

Inuyasha strove for the right words. "They all came out when you were crying…while you were crying about that boy. For you, that total stranger wasn't just some dead body. It was important. Some random, dead body mattered…all because he looked like a member of your family. And your mother, brother and grandfather, who had no idea what was bothering you, just came to comfort you because they're your family and that's what families should do..."

Kagome's mouth gaped open slightly as all he was and wasn't saying began to make sense.

"Like I said," Inuyasha concluded softly, "you're lucky."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha's hunched shoulders and closed expression, wanting to do something to erase that look from his eyes but she said nothing and offered no comfort.

She simply didn't know how to soothe his pain.

Searching for something to say, Kagome was spared the confrontation with an issue she wasn't prepared for as Inuyasha stood up abruptly.

"I'm going. You go back to sleep."

"I'm not tired."

"I don't give a shit. Go to sleep in your weird bed and be ready to leave in the morning."

Blue eyes narrowed. "Hold on. You mean I'm not going to school tomorrow?"

Golden eyes rolled. "What the hell do you think the answer to the question is?"

"Jerk."

"Go to sleep," ordered Inuyasha and he stormed from the room.

"He didn't even shut off the light," groused Kagome as she got up and flicked down the switch.

In the darkness, the memory of the murdered boy surged forward again.

This time however she had a weapon against the despair.

Inuyasha's words resonated in Kagome's memory.

_You're lucky…_

She saw the love that surrounded her at all times, a blanket that would protect her heart and mind from the worst the world would throw at her.

Because of the comfort Inuyasha unknowingly gave, her knowledge of that love became a weapon that was stronger then the horrific recollection of that first corpse and protection against everything she would see in the future.

With Inuyasha by her side, the knowledge of love allowed her to survive the bloody years in Sengoku Jidai.

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A/N: well, what did everyone think? I'm a little nervous about the ending but I'm okay with it.

This piece was inspired by a girl in my college complaining about how her family smothered her and wouldn't let her do anything and what b.s. it was that they claimed to do it out of love. I had the strongest urge to ask her how she would feel if that support system dropped out from underneath her, if her family died- how would she feel? I wanted to slap her. Without family, life is extremely difficult.

Family is important and often, in times of trouble, family will be the one thing that's always there. If you take a stumble in life, family and love will help you up. Now, I know that not every family is happy or even healthy. Just as family can be your biggest support, they can also be your biggest problem. I am aware of this unfortunately common circumstance.

However, I think in terms of Kagome, her family is great and she needed to be reminded of that. Poor Inuyasha is an orphan, hated by everyone around him and I can see his impatience/disgust/longing for a family who would treat him like Kagome's treats her.

She's a lucky girl and it just might make seeing a dead boy to point that out to her.


	9. The Promise the Corpse Wrung

A/N (edit): um, why was everyone so up in arms about the mistaken double-chapter-in-one thing? It honestly didn't seem like that big of a deal to me and it was 1 minute before sabbath soI had to run or not post. There was no nefarious scheme attached or anything.

i am correcting my terrible act! I repent! Put down the pitchforks and torches!

Enjoy the chapter!

A/N:This was written a long time ago and in no way or form reflects the intentions of the author to have a Mother's Day fic. However, the timing is kind of good.

I am dedicating this toall the mothers who have to go let their kids go out and save the world, as much as it may hurt them.

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**The Promise the Corpse Wrung:**

Stretching his tight muscles, Inuyasha walked away from Kagome's door. Having sat there until her breath had slowed and evened had taken a bit of time but he had expected Kagome to have trouble falling asleep.

It had not occurred to him to wonder why he had waited for peaceful sleep to come over her before leaving. It had simply been an instinct, one he was unaware of heeding.

_Stupid bitch, _Inuyasha thought affably,_ so torn up over something as stupid as a dead body. _

Adjusting his hakama minutely, Inuyasha clomped down the stairs toward the kitchen. Stopping for a moment, he looked askance at the photographs of Kagome and her family had hung on the walls. Souta and Kagome shoving sand into each other's faces at the beach in one photo, Jii-chan held a baby in his arms with a large grin across his usually dour face and another of a small Kagome standing on a stool, covered in flour and looking terribly surprised. One photo was of Kagome and Souta dressed in traditional clothing and smiling prettily.

At the end of the stairwell was one picture larger then the rest. In it, a woman who Inuyasha assumed was a younger Mrs. Higurashi held hands with a man, both blushing and smiling happily. Their clothing was incredibly odd and the hanyou could feel sympathy for the man in a black suit. _How can anyone breathe in such tight clothes? _Thankfully he looked down at his own comfortable pants. Peering closer at Mrs. Higurashi's outfit, he shook his head in confusion. "What the hell…?" It was white and obviously expensive but what was it? A cloud made out of fabric? Who would want that?

"It's a wedding dress," a sudden, sweet voice at his elbow said.

Squawking in surprise, Inuyasha leapt to the top of the stairs, dangerous claws at the ready.

Mrs. Higurashi looked up at Inuyasah and smiled gently. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Keh! You didn't scare me!" the teenaged boy denied though his actions called his words a lie.

She paused, raised her eyebrows but only nodded her head. "I need to speak to you for a moment."

Wordlessly he vaulted all the steps and elegantly landed next to Mrs. Higurashi from the top stair.

"Oh," she said wide eyed. "That was quite a jump."

"That's a stupid looking dress," he replied baldly, pointing to the picture. "What the hell did you wear that for?"

"It is ugly, isn't it?" she said cheerfully. "It was the Eighties. 'The bigger, the better' was pretty much the motto of that whole decade."

The boy with golden eyes stared uncomprehendingly at her and shrugged carelessly.

"I felt beautiful though," Mrs. Higurashi said almost to herself. "I felt so because he told me that I was…" Reaching up, she brushed loving fingers over the man's face and smiled shakily.

Inuyasha looked away quickly, the moment too intimate for a stranger to see.

Mrs. Higurashi swallowed and, gathering her composure, motioned the hanyou into her kitchen. "Come on. I'll make tea."

Unsure of her purpose, Inuyasha couldn't see any reason to refuse and followed her warily. "What do you want?" he asked rudely as he slouched in the odd thing Kagome had told him was called a chair.

Brown eyes locked onto his. "Do you like tea?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"I asked you what you want from me," Inuyasha repeated as his anger began to smolder.

Her mouth pursed but Mrs. Higurashi settled the teapot back onto the stovetop. "I see the social niceties aren't important to you."

He raised one sarcastic eyebrow and wordlessly pushed himself back and forth in tiny increments as he leaned back in the chair, balancing on the rear legs.

"Do you know what made Kagome so upset earlier? She…she wouldn't tell me anything." Looking away from the strangely astute eyes of the young boy across from her, Mrs. Higurashi ran her finger on the edge of her cup.

"She saw a kid who looked like Souta dead on the side of a road. She lost it."

The cup tipped sideways, spilling hot tea over the table. "_What!_ Oh my goodness, poor Kagome!" Her maternal instincts screaming, Mrs. Higurashi stood up to go to her precious child.

"Hey!" Inuyasha snapped, still rocking in the chair. "She just fell asleep. Sit down."

"Oh…then I shouldn't wake her up."

"No shit," mumbled Inuyasha dryly.

Sitting down and feeling suddenly weak, Mrs. Higurashi dazedly found a towel and cleaned the mess of tea. "Do you often see sights like that?" she asked finally.

"She hasn't yet but yeah, dead bodies are pretty common." He grinned. "Not that I have any intention of becoming one or nothing. I'm too strong for most demons to even lay a hand on me!" bragged Inuyasha.

"Do you have what it takes to back up that bravado?"

Inuyasha blinked in surprise and the chair thumped as it landed on all four legs. "Wha...what do you mean?"

Mrs. Higurashi slid into the seat facing his. Her eyes were glowing with a fervor he couldn't understand. "That's my daughter you have in your hands. I want to know how safe she is."

Inuyasha glared. "Don't matter how safe she is," he snarled succinctly.

"That's silly. It matters quite a lot."

"No it doesn't," the hardened youth replied.

"I'm afraid that answer won't do," Mrs. Higurashi said firmly, her normally gentle eyes turning cold.

A clock announced the minutes passing by with a tick of the larger hand.

"How much has she told you about what we do in the Feudal era?"

"Not much," admitted Kagome's mother softly. "Just that she did something wrong and now needs to fix it."

"That's one way to put it," Inuyasha snorted. "She broke the Shikon no Tama."

"The…those keychains that grandpa sells?"

The hanyou knew she was being serious but he still wanted to shake her. "I'm talking about the real Shikon jewel. It's a long story but basically Kagome cracked the Jewel into a thousand really dangerous pieces. The entire youkai population has gone crazy, killing whoever may have a piece of the Jewel. It's even affecting the human scum. They're going on killing sprees, slaughtering everything in their way but don't even realize they're being influenced by the Shikon no Tama." He slouched in the chair and crossed his arms. "That daughter of yours started a country-wide massacre and she's got to take responsibility for that and finish it."

"Kagome is too gentle, too weak for this type of responsibility," Mrs. Higurashi said, shaking her head.

Inuyasha stared at the oldest Higurashi woman. "How well do you know your daughter?"

"Quite well."  
"Not well enough. Kagome isn't as weak as you think," Inuyasha said seriously, leaning forward until he was close to her face. "She's killed a person. She didn't like it but she's used a bow and arrow to kill when someone attacked her."

"She _killed_ someone?" Mrs. Higurashi asked in horror.

"He was attacking her." Inuyasha shrugged. "She blew him up with one of those spirit arrows."

"My Kagome wouldn't do such a thing!"

"Your Kagome isn't the Kagome she was before she fell into the well. She's different," Inuyasha attested quietly. "She's stronger. Forged in the fire of combat, you could say."

Mrs. Higurashi covered her mouth with a shaking hand. "Is it so…dangerous there?"

"Fuck yeah." _Stupid bitch, what did you think? That we picnic all the time?_

She breathed too quickly and her throat felt tight. _Kagome, my Kagome…!_ Images of having to attend her own daughter's funeral assaulted her mind and Mrs. Higurashi gasped and felt a tear streak down a cheek. "I, I can't let her go do something so dangerous. She could get hurt!"

"Yeah and a bad mushroom during supper could kill her too," Inuyasha said callously. There was no room for pity in his hardened heart. There was too much at stake and nothing- not even a mother's tears- could outweigh that.

"She never told me it was so dangerous!" Mrs. Higurashi burst out, panic obviously shadowing her words.

Inuyasha said nothing, not bothering to try and explain the actions of someone he barely knew.

"What if she dies?" she whispered in dread and looked at Inuyasha, her eyes shining with frightened tears. "I…no, no, no. She can't die. I-" Mrs. Higurashi swallowed convulsively and her hands fisted where they rested in her lap. "I promised my husband when he was in the hospital that nothing would ever happen to our children. Oh god…! Kagome, what have you gotten yourself into?" She released a shaky sob, murmuring her daughter's name over and over.

Inuyasha looked away and ran a clawed hand through his hair. "There's nothing you can do," he said, his idea of comfort being that a quick, short pain was preferable to a long, drawn out discussion.

"I can make sure that she's safe. She's not going back."

Blinking, Inuyasha looked at Mrs. Higurashi's entirely serious face and felt unreasonable anger rising in him. "Yes she is."

"Kagome isn't going back to someplace where she has to kill or see dead little boys all the time. Our time is not your time," she stressed.

"Too fuckin' bad! Kagome has to come!"

"I said she's not going back there!"

"_She's all that I've got!"_ Inuyasha shouted, banging his fist on the table. In the sudden silence, he panted for breath.

He didn't know why he was so adamant that the schoolgirl who was more of a hindrance then help should come back.

But his instincts wouldn't allow him to let Kagome go and never see her again. The instincts that had seen him through so many horrible times and kept him alive all this time were clamoring that he not let this girl escape.

"This is more then just your kid or about Kagome's era," he insisted quietly. "This is about saving the world."

If there had been even a hint of melodrama in his voice, she could have dismissed him and the entire situation her careless daughter had gotten herself into. However, his voice was hushed and intense. Mrs. Higurashi could see he believed that her little girl was the only option.

"…Save the world," she repeated, a sad frown on her face.

"There was once someone else who could have done it but she's dead now," Inuyasha said softly. "The shards have to be gathered and she's the only one who can see them. Kagome's the only one."

The clock was once more audible as the older woman twisted a dish rag in her hands and Inuyasha looked down at his lap and tapped his finger against his knee.

Suddenly pushing back her chair, Mrs. Higurashi walked over to Inuyasha. The hanyou titled his head up to maintain eye contact and almost clawed her when she grabbed his head.

He could feel the press of her fingertips against where a human ear would be and the exhalation of her breath fanned against his face.

"I need you to promise me something," she whispered intently.

"What?" he whispered, a little disturbed by her close proximity and more frightened by the powerful hold her tear-filled eyes had over him.

"I need you to swear on whatever you hold sacred that my daughter will be safe," she said intently.

He shook his head weakly. _Don't ask me to do this…!_

"I need you to promise me that you'll protect her," Mrs. Higurashi insisted strongly, her voice overly loud and desperate. "Now that I know what's on the line…there's no way she'd listen to me. She's going to go with you, I know she will! She's too much like her father…"

Inuyasha tried to pull his head from her grasp but all that accomplished was the tightening of her fingers.

"You need to swear to me that you'll protect her as best you can! Swear it to me!"  
Inuyasha cringed away from her barely veiled hysteria. A distant and hazy memory of another mother begging a warrior to protect her hanyou child and being laughed at came to him.

"_Please! He's my son! Give him protection!"_

"_Izayoi! He's a hanyou. I'll not sacrifice my honor by protecting such an abomination."_

"_Have some kindness!"_

"_I am," the shadowy, armored figure replied stonily. "I won't kill him immediately."_

Inuyasha pulled away from her confining fingers and stood. Looking down at the petite woman in her frilly apron and fluffy house slippers, he nodded to an infinitesimal degree. "I will protect Kagome," he swore softly. "To the best of my ability, nothing will happen to her and, after we finish this journey…once the Jewel is complete and whole, you'll have your daughter back. I swear this on my mother's memory."

Her brown eyes searched his stoic gold ones and, when they saw the authenticity of his words reflected back at her, sighed a deep exhalation of relief.

"God bless you," she whispered, sinking into a heap on the floor. "I, I wouldn't be able to face my husband if I knew that I left Kagome with no protection when she goes back."

"I thought Kagome's father was dead."

"He did and I, I can't have another member of my family die on me. I didn't do enough then…" She grasped at Inuyasha's clawed hand and held on strongly. "Please do the best you can. Kagome's my only daughter and she looks so much like him…"

Inuyasha knelt at her side and repeated his promise. "I'll protect her, all right? Nothing will happen if I can stop it."

She nodded weakly, pushing herself off the floor and walking over to the stove. "Tea?" she asked softly.

Inuyasha shook his head and turned to escape into the Goshinboku. At the door's edge, he paused in indecision.

"Yes?" Mrs. Higurashi inquired softly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

She stared at him and nodded. "Me too," she whispered as he escaped into the darkness.

-----------------

For a long while Mrs. Higurashi looked at her tea, sipping absently even as it grew cold. Eventually she got up and wandered around the house, checking on everyone, picking up Souta's toys and clothes and doing comforting, motherly things.

As she passed the living room window, with no little shock, she saw the boy from the past stare into her daughter's room from the branches of the ancient Goshinboku.

His casual stance was protective and his eyes watchful, already fulfilling his promise. Mrs. Higurashi looked out at the scene for a long while.

He never attempted to enter the window.

He never shifted nor blinked.

Inuyasha's hair shone in the reflection of the moon and his eyes glowed with a feral gold light as he kept watch.

_What will be, will be._ Mrs. Higurashi turned away from the window to head for her bed.

"Everything will be okay," she whispered to her dead husband as she past him on the stairway. He smiled gently out at her from their wedding photo.

A breeze curled around the nape of her neck, oddly comforting and feeling like a gentle kiss. _Kagome will be just fine._

Mrs. Higurashi looked around at the windowless stairway and smiled back at her husband.


	10. Corpses and Consequences

A/N: I wanted to finish this arc up and so posted this as soon as I could. Defense for the rather mean ending is in the bottom AN.

Hope you all enjoy it.

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Corpses and Consequences:

"I can't handle this," Kagome whispered. It was the third night in a row she had woken up in a cold sweat. The nightmares were getting stronger and stealing away her strength; the emotional pressure was enormous.

The hanyou across from the smoldering fire glared. "You wouldn't have bad dreams if you would just stop crying yourself to sleep."

Kagome glared right back. "Don't be ridiculous. Crying doesn't cause nightmares."

"They do if you keep crying and bitching because you won't stop thinking about it!" Inuyasha snarled. "Nothing so terrible happened."

_Why do I bother?_ Sighing, Kagome felt all her pent up nerves and energy fade away into lethargy. Crickets chirped and she inhaled the peace as if it were a physical aid to her wellbeing. Nighttime usually brought a rare sense of calm to the tumultuous region.

But with the nighttime now came memories.

The sights, the smells and the sounds of that forest glade where murder had been committed surged into her and Kagome buried her face in her hands on the remembrance.

_The dismembered bodies…__congealed blood everywhere…__pink and pale guts spilled over green grass...__a crow pecking at a man's stomach and peeling away flesh…_

Gagging, she stumbled out of the sleeping bag and made it outside the campground just in time.

"Aw shit," Inuyasha grumbled, already rummaging through her yellow briefcase. "Not again."

Kagome sank next to the greenery and coughed. _I can't do this…_

Heaving a sigh, Inuyasha plunked a water bottle next to her. "Drink," he ordered curtly. "And stop hurling. I told you it makes me sick."

"Sorry," she whispered. "I can't help it." She took a deep drink from the bottle, spit it out and stood up on shaky legs. Sitting down again beside the fire, she stared at her hands and simply tried to empty her mind of the horrific memories plaguing it.

_Dead, mangled bodies…a spirit arrow bisecting limbs…an insect climbing over a vacant face…_

Whimpering she shut her eyes and sucked in a lungful of air. "Don't think about it," she whispered to herself.

"Oi! You!" snapped Inuyasha.

Warily Kagome's eyes opened to see a gold reflection of herself too close. His breath fanned her cheeks and Kagome jerked back in surprise.

Inuyasha leaned forward. "Stop beating yourself up about it," hesaid impatiently. "It's not your fault."

"If I had detected the shard earlier…"

"Those assholes still would have tried to get it, only they would have fought us instead of other humans," Inuyasha bluntly. "Bastards, all of them, through and through and killing 'em rid this area of a menace."

Kagome looked away sadly. "I can't help being so freaked out. _I killed people with my arrows_…"

Inuyasha sighed. It was honestly confusing to him the way the girl obsessed over things beyond her control. "It was them or you," he said finally. "In the end, that's all it comes down to."

"I know. I wish it didn't."

_If only we had avoided coming back two days later, we wouldn't be having this problem. It was only after seeing the bodies that she started having these nightmares…,_ Inuyasha thought, angry for not having considered her reaction to the decaying corpses.

"I hate doing this," the girl from the future confessed. "I wasn't supposed to kill people when I agreed to do this. The nightmares and guilt are too much."

"Scary dreams or not, you don't have a choice," Inuyasha said in a hard voice.

She looked away.

"You broke the shards," Inuyasha hissed furiously, enunciating every word. "Do you understand? You fucked up. You have to put things right again. Got it?"

"_I know that!"_ Kagome shouted in his face. "I know! But this is too much!"

"Are you going to run away?" he asked after a minute, the answer to his question not in doubt.

Kagome sighed unhappily. "You know I won't."

Inuyasha nodded at her once in approval.

"I want to run away," she admitted softly.

Inuyasha snorted eloquently. "Keh. Who doesn't? It's always the toughest shit that needs doing. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

She shook her head at his bluntness. "Let's just say I've never heard it put quite that way."

"Keh."

"I'm going to sleep. Again," she announced with a yawn.

"You exhausted yourself from all that crying," he snorted.

As the silence between them dragged on, Kagome realized something frightening. _He's not going to say anything else. He truly doesn't see my need to be comforted more. How can he not understand that? I killed someone and he doesn't care. _

The differences between them gave Kagome sudden pause.

_I am going through a life-altering event after killing someone and he just doesn't get that it's a big deal. Human life really doesn't mean anything to him if a person gets in his way. _

Feeling a shiver run down her back, Kagome silently moved her sleeping bag across the fire, as far as she could get from the hanyou.

Inuyasha noticed and swallowed. _I'm not disappointed_, he told himself sternly. _I'm not disappointed at all. _

Neither slept that night.

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A/N: This is not light hearted at all and originally I had them coming to some sort of understanding with each other. Then I realized that- no, the issue of the importance of human life is too big to be solved over one conversation. Inuyasha doesn't get it- caring for others is too foreign for him to comprehend or bother with at this point in his life.

It's just something the two of them would have to come to accept about the other in time and, in the anime and manga, eventually they do (with Inuyasha becoming more compassionate but whatever). Some people aren't going to like this at all, citing Kagome OOC-ness and other things. In my defense all I will say is that two people from such disparate backgrounds, lifestyles and experiences are going to be uncomfortable with each other at some point so why not with this? Seems like the type of point a person should be concerned with.


	11. Everything But

A/N: Hey. Hope you like the chapter. I always wondered what reaction her friends would be if they looked inside Kagome's Mary Poppin's-esque bag.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything Inuyasha related except the cards.

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Everything But…

"I love class trips!" Ayumi said enthusiastically.

"Better than class," shrugged Eri.

Yuka rechecked her wallet. "The only good thing about going to the city park to sketch is the bonus of going to lunch at WacDonalds."

None of the three noticed the extremely irritated expression on Kagome Higurashi's face.

_I argued for over three hours with a stubborn, rude hanyou because I thought I had a huge test today and the stupid exam is next week!_ she seethed inwardly. _I'm such an idiot!_

The ever optimistic Ayumi smiled. "I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to see Mother Nature outside of the city."

_I just left Mother Nature! I wanted to enjoy Father Technology for a little bit! _Kagome released a sigh, mentally acknowledging that the mix up was her own fault. _Being upset won't change anything and at least now I'm not attacking or getting attacked by demons. _

The buzzing classroom was silenced abruptly as the school principal knocked on the classroom door.

"Oh man," grumbled Yuka in an undertone. Ms. Sato looked disgruntled but resigned as she stepped aside to allow Mr. Kobayashi in.

"What's going on?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Spot check," sighed Eri as she and every other member of class grabbed their backpacks and opened them on top of the desks.

"For what?" Kagome pulled her backpack out slower than the rest and noticed with alarm as the principal's eyes narrowed in her direction.

"Drugs, condoms, whatever." Grudgingly sitting down, Yuka rolled her eyes. "This is just an excuse to harass us and infringe on our rights."

Ayumi smiled weakly. "It's not so bad. Almost no one ever gets caught."

"What happens when someone gets caught?"

Everyone within hearing winced and shook their heads. Even the perpetually cheerful Ayumi looked disapproving. "It gets put into your permanent record and all the colleges are alerted that you were a delinquent."

Kagome felt her eyes widen in disbelief. "Oh my god," she whispered as the head faculty member began to search backpacks. "That's horrible! No college would take someone with a transcript like that!"

"Which is why the system works. Who can risk that?" Yuka asked rhetorically.

"No talking!" snapped Kobayashi-san.

Eri glared furiously and shot the principal a rude gesture under her desk.

One by one, briefcases were emptied, examined and left for the student to repack. Kagome watched apprehensively as the principal methodically went up and down aisles of desks. Eventually, he reached her seat, black eyes cold.

"And why do you look nervous, hmm?" he asked softly.

"…No reason," Kagome with an uneasy smile.

"Let's see what's in this bag." Pulling apart the zipper, Kobayashi pulled out a few textbook, a box lunch and a pencil case. He opened the case, peering inside suspiciously and grunting wordlessly when it revealed nothing more sinister than chewed pencils.

Kobayashi seemed to pause. The same sixth sense that allowed him to turn around precisely when notes were being passed was tingling, telling him that there was something off here. Determined, he peered into the bag.

"What the…?" He staredat Kagome, confusion written plainly on his lined face.

"Sir? Is something wrong?" Ms. Sato asked anxiously.

"Ms. Higurashi, would you like to explain this?"Kobayashi-san asked as he held up a crumbled up ball of an extra uniform taken from Kaogme's yellow bag.

"Um…it'sone of thosejust-in-case things," Kagome said with a blinding smile. "Just…in case."

"Mm-hmm."

"Yep. Maybe something could happen during lunchtime and…I'd need another." _Or, more likely,_ _a demon spews its guts all over my uniform and I need to change._

"An extra uniform?"

Kagome nodded and breathed out shakily as Kobayashi-san stared at her but dropped the uniform onto the desk, abandoning the line of questioning.

She was not so pleased when the principal pulled out a little plastic baggie with a few stalks of green herbs in it. "Care to explain this?"  
_Oh, this is the last time I carry stuff around for Kaede! Damn it!_ "It's yakumosou," Kagome answered. "It's an herbal remedy for stomach cramps, headaches, nausea."

"Is it now?" The principal stared at the green stalks suspiciously. "Why are you carrying around herbal remedies? What happened to aspirin?"

_This is what I get for helping out the elderly! An interrogation. That's it, the elderly can just freakin' fend for themselves. _"…My family is a traditional family," Kagome said improvising madly as she talked, "and so don't really believe that aspirin is better than the traditional medicines. After all, aspirin has only been around for a hundred years or so while yakumosou tea has been passed down for over ten generations. You can see the logic."

"Not really."

"If it's not broke, don't fix it."

"Ms. Higurashi, I'm asking you _why it is in my school_?" the principal thundered.

Kagome smiled nervously and patted Eri on the shoulder. "My friends want it to help them with their problem." At Kobayashi-san's blank stare, she elaborated. "Their female problems sir."

As with all men, the mention of a woman's monthly hell caused Kobayashi-san to immediately attempt a change of topic. He pushed the baggie into his pockets and mumbled something about getting a professional herbalist to confirm that the green plant was not of the recreational kind.

"Well, we don't have all day. Let's finish up with this bag," he blustered.

"Let's," Kagome agreed with a fake smile.

Kobayashi tried to stare her down for her impertinent answer but a girl who routinely battles demons and handles an argumentative hanyou daily does not get intimidated by overweight middle aged men.

Grunting, the principal pulled out six containers of instant Ramen, ten energy bars, five bags of potato chips, eight candy bars and seven bottles of enhanced vitamin water.

Kobayashi stared at the food pile on Kagome's desk, counting out loud as each new item was taken from the depths of her yellow bag.

"Miss Higurashi," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "far be it for me to comment on a young girl with a large appetite but don't you think this is a bit excessive?"

Kagome felt her mouth abandon its smile. "No," she said bluntly. "My delicate health causes me to need sugar and-"

"So you need ten candy bars?"  
"Yes and the potato chips. And the energy bars are because...I…like having a lot of energy. The water-"

"All seven bottles of it. What are you doing with all that?"

"Staying hydrated," Kagome replied quickly. "It gets very hot here in Tokyo and my mother likes it when I have plenty of water."

"Mmm-hmm…So all this is for the trip today?"

"Yes."

"When this class goes on the hike?"

"Yes."

"So why do you have this much instant Ramen?"

_Because Inuyasha treats every meal like it's his last and insists on having Ramen at least once a day._

"And so many flavors," Kobayashi continued. "You know, in my day we didn't take instant food on hikes. Young people these days."

Kagome chuckled weakly.

"You know, besides for the extra uniform and the herbs, this much food just makes me more suspicious. Simply put, girls simply do not eat this amount of food."

Everyone in the classroom heard the implied 'but boys do.'

Kagome swallowed. There was absolutely no way to salvage the situation. _He thinks I'm meeting a bunch of boys! He thinks I'm an immoral, drug taking slut with bad eating habits. He'll put this in my transcripts and I'm not going to get into college, _she thought as a panic attack began in her stomach_. I'm going to end up working menial labor and spend the rest of my life living with my mother and grandfather! I think I'm going to be sick…_

"Ms. Higurashi? Anything to say?"

"Kobayashi-san!" Eri called out suddenly.

"What?"

"We have something to tell you," Yuka said. Ayumi nodded and helped the other two girls herd the principal away from their friend. It would have been funny to see someone else getting pushed around by the three meddlers but a bad feeling was developing in Kagome's stomach.

"Sir, this is Kagome!" Yuka stage whispered.

_Do they think they're talking softly? _Kagome wondered in annoyance. "I can hear you!" she said loudly.

"I know who this is." The principal was not happy and it reflected in his voice.

Eri sighed. "She's not well, remember?"

"She has a history of illnesses," Ayumi confided.

"What? I know Higurashi's sick a lot!"

"Not sick here," Eri said as she placed a hand on her stomach. She tapped a temple with her index finger. "Here."

"Eri!" Kagome shouted in horror. "What are you saying?"

Yuka shot Kagome a sad look. "It's not her fault. She's just so full of medications that… it messes with her mind. She just doesn't realize what she's putting into her briefcase."

"I had no idea." Kobayashi-san looked horrified. _How could I have picked on a mentally disabled girl? A sick mentally disabled girl! Oh, I hope the board of directors doesn't hear about this!_ he mentally prayed.

Kagome could do nothing as her principal walked out of the classroom with Ms. Sato, simply opening and closing her mouth without being able to get a single word out.

"Well that was easy," Eri proclaimed confidently.

"_I'm going to kill you_!" Kagome shouted on the top of her lungs. "Our principal thinks I'm crazy!"

"Yeah but at least now he forgot all about thinking you're a slut," Yuka said.

"Because now he thinks I'm overdosing on legal meds and have lost my mind!"

Ayumi smiled cheerfully. "He doesn't think you've lost your mind. It's more like he thinks you're food obsessed and…really, really out of it."

Kagome stared at her friends. "Oh joy," she said finally, sitting down heavily in her seat. "He's going to write on my transcript: 'She was really, really out of it.'"

"But seriously Kagome, what were you thinking?" Eri asked in disgust. "The stuff you have is just so weird. I mean, Ramen? Six bowls of Ramen?"

Yuka peered into Kagome's briefcase. "How do you even fit that much stuff into one little bag?"

"You packed everything but the kitchen sink!" a boy called out to the laughter of his classmates.

"No kitchen sink," Kagome said, still preoccupied with visions of colleges with white walled rooms. "Just a water heater."

Silence descended on the classroom.

"A…water heater?" Yuka asked slowly.

"How else was I supposed to cook all that Ramen?" Kagome replied. "Left side pocket on the inside."

Yuka grabbed the bag and pulled out the portable water heater. Kagome's three friends exchanged glances and sighed.

"I was just joking before," Eri whispered. "You can't really get mentally imbalanced from meds, can you?"

"I am _not_ mentally imbalanced!" Kagome yelled.

"We all still have to get out of here!" Ms. Sato called from the front of the class as she reentered the room. "Get your stuff and come on!"

Everyone hurried to gather their things and run out of the classroom. As Kagome was filing past the teacher, Ms. Sato cleared her throat. "Perhaps you'd like to go home and rest for a bit?" she suggested gently. "Go to the doctor and...make sure everything is okay?"

Kagome stared at her teacher silently and slowly shook her head. "I hate days like today."

"I know."

That earned Ms. Sato an amused and resigned look. "The scary thing is that no, you really don't. You have absolutely no idea." She shouldered her yellow briefcase. "Screw it," she mumbled as she walked down the hall. "I never liked school anyways."

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A/N: Poor Kagome. I've been trying to get this idea out and I know it's not specifically before anyone else joined the group but it just struck me as something pre-everyone else.

Hope you enjoyed it! review please!


	12. Martha Comes to Visit

A/N: Okay- here's the thing people. When the original chapter came out, i kind of thought people would get the euphamism of kagome saying 'ass' instead of 'vagina'. Apparently not.

Let me just state: yes. i do know where tampons go. and yes. i am aware that it is not optional placement- if you want the things to work, you must put them in the correct place.

so here's a revised version of this chapter. kagome says it best.

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**Martha comes to visit (version 2.0):**

Kagome sucked in a breath and searched desperately for her aspirin. Another cramp hit her low in her belly and the girl hunched down in pain.

Eyes squeezed shut she breathed deep and slow.

"How long are you going to sit there?" Inuyasha asked in annoyance from a tree branch.

_As long as it takes to stop me from vomiting,_ Kagome thought miserably. "Is there a hot spring nearby?" She asked, ignoring his other question.

"Yeah, just over that hill but we are- no!" Inuyasha groaned as Kagome hobbled to the spring. "We don't have time for your crap!" he shouted behind her as he jumped down to follow her.

Kagome slowly straightened and turned around. A look of pure and utter evil was on her angelic face as she grabbed Inuyasha by the front of his hakama.

"Listen here," she hissed angrily, "do not and I mean _do not_ piss me off today. I'm going to be very, very clear about this: I will sit in that hot spring as long as I want without hearing any moaning or groaning from you."

Inuyasha gulped as her face turned red and her pupils shrunk in fury to little pinpricks of black. _What the hell?_ He wondered in fear as he tried not to run away. _What the hell happened to her? She was fine a minute ago!_

"If I do hear anything from you, I. Will. Make. You. Pay." Kagome growled. "And it will hurt and it will be a slow, torturous death."

"Like that's the first time I've ever heard that," Inuyasha snorted.

Kagome's eyes widened and suddenly filled with tears. "I'm so awful!" she whispered. "How could I say that? Oh my god, what have I done?" Dropping her head into her hands, she burst into uncontrollable sobs.

"Wha-?" Inuyasha asked in helpless confusion.

Kagome shook her head wordlessly and continued to cry.

"You've lost your mind," he informed her finally.

Five minutes passed while Inuyasha tapped his foot in impatience.

"Let's go!" he shouted finally. "I've got better things to do!"

"_I said no moaning and groaning!!"_ Kagome snarled, her eyes up and rabidly furious.

Inuyasha nearly swallowed his tongue in fear. _What the _fuck _is wrong with her? She's really lost it_, he decided. Inuyasha backed up and sat on the ground. _Really, honest-to-fuckin'-god lost it. _Despite his lack of conviction about her mental status, Inuyasha said not a word as Kagome stomped over to her bag and pulled out a strange tube from her bag.

"What is that?"

Kagome gasped and turned red. "_Bastard!! _You know what this is! You are trying to make me uncomfortable!"

"Um, no. I have no idea what it is? Can I eat it?"

"No you can't eat it, you pig! It's a tampon!"

"What do you do with it?"

"A tampon," Kagome drawled out the word, her patience stretching to the breaking point in less than fifteen seconds. "I stick it up my ass when I'm leaking blood from my body."

Inuyasha blanched. "You put that thing up your ass? That's disgusting!"

"Oh, do _not_ play deliberately stupid with me," Kagome warned. "You know I was just referring to my lower area in general. I don't actually stick my tampon in my butt."

"Then say that," Inuyasha snorted.

"I just did."

"Stupid woman. All this fuss. Totally like a female to take something simple like a monthly bleeding and make it into a huge deal."

He squawked as Kagome nabbed his ear and shook him back and forth.

"Huge deal? It is a huge deal! I'm not doing this for me! You think I want to have this hell every four weeks? I'm doing this for the male species! I'm bleeding and have to stick a cotton tube up my butt- and yes! I'm calling it my butt. Mess with my word choice at your own risk!- because a female's body is programmed to one day let some disgusting man come and put his semen into my body, make me pregnant and then I'll have to carry around a parasite for nine god damned months, getting fat, vomiting all the time and stretched marked and burping and farting with no energy and everyone will expect me to have a glow when, in fact, I'll be giving all my nutrients to my fetus and have none left for myself so I'll have to go and get expensive vitamins and then to top it all off, I'll have to push a seven pound baby out of a ten centimeter hole in my vagina for a long, hellish time where I'll either suffer excruciating pain or get a needle that could paralyze me for life because the stupid doctors can't find a better system! And after my nine months and sixteen hours of hell, the disgusting man- who hasn't done a freakin' thing except get lucky nine months ago- will hold the baby up and say, _'look what we made!!'_"

Kagome heaved for breath.

"And that is why," she finished finally, "I use a tampon."

Inuyasha nervously backed away. "…I'll just take you to that hot spring now…"

"Oh that is so sweet of you!" gushed Kagome. "I would love to go to a hot spring!"

Nodding quickly, Inuyasha ushered the happy girl through the forest. "Yes, yes, hot springs are wonderful."

"Almost as good as chocolate!" agreed Kagome. "I have some in my bag actually. Mmm…chocolate!"

"Yeah it is good. I took some from your bag last night," Inuyasha replied absently, too late realizing his error.

"YOU DID WHAT?"

"Thehotspringisjustaroundthebendyoucan'tmissitenjoytakeallthetimeyouneed!!" Inuyasha spun around and sprang into a tree and raced a decent amount away.

He peered down but Kagome had already grabbed her things and walked to the hot spring. _I didn't think she knew curse words like that._

Sighing in relief, he settled back against the tree to wait. "Lost her mind," he commented in disgust to the air, "_completely_ lost her mind."

But he made sure to comment very, very quietly.

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A/N: It's not that I don't love reviews but someone of them were kind of deragatory. Everyone more satisfied? All those offended souls placated? good. let's all move on...


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